Emergency physician use and perceptions of the Alberta Netcare Portal, a province-wide interoperable electronic health record (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The adoption and use of an Electronic Health Record can facilitate real-time access to key health information and support improved outcomes. Many Canadian provinces use interoperable Electronic Health Records (iEHRs) to facilitate Health Information Exchange (HIE), but, to date, the clinical use and utility of iEHRs has not been well-described. OBJECTIVE Our study's primary objective was to describe the use and reported utility of a provincial iEHR known as the Alberta Netcare Portal (ANP) in four urban Alberta emergency departments (EDs). The secondary objectives were to characterize the time spent using the respective electronic tools, and which aspects were perceived as most useful by ED physicians. METHODS Four EDs were included in the study, two using paper-based ordering (University of Alberta Hospital [UAH] and Grey Nuns Community Hospital [GNCH]) and two using a commercial vendor Clinical Information System (Peter Lougheed Centre [PLC] and Foothills Medical Centre [FMC]). Structured clinical observations of ANP use, semi-structured interviews, and system audit logs analysis were compared at the four sites from October 2014 to March 2016. RESULTS Observers followed 142 physicians for a total of 566 hours over 376 occasions. The median percentage of observed time spent using ANP was 8.5% at UAH (interquartile range IQR: 3.7% - 13.3%), 4.4% at GNCH (2.4%-4.4%), 4.6% at FMC (2.4%-7.6%), and 5.1% at PLC (3.0%-7.7%). By combining administrative and access audit data, the median number of ANP screens (i.e., results and reports displayed on a screen) accessed per patient visit were 20 at UAH (IQR: 6-67), 9 at GNCH (4-29), 7 at FMC (2-18) and 5 at PLC (2-14) indicating that clinicians found significant value in using ANP while providing ED care. To explore this hypothesis, semi-structured interviews were analyzed using an inductive approach. The themes that emerged from the interviews were that the ANP improved the quality and continuity of care and patient safety. Further enhancements related to medication management would support better outcomes for patients. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that the iEHR is well utilized at the four sites studied and physicians participating in the study perceived ANP had a positive impact on knowledge of their patients, patient safety, and quality and continuity of care. Physicians described high utility and usability of ANP. More study about the clinical impacts of using iEHRs in the Canadian context, including longer term impacts on quality of practice and safety are required.

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